Surgical glove package



Feb. 20, 1968 R. T. QUADE ETAL' 3,369,657

SURGICAL GLOVE PACKAGE 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 18, 1966 ENVENT RS. F065,??- 7. 62/405 wv Rosa-0N ATTORNEY Feb. 20, 1968 R. T. QUADE ETAL SURGICAL GLOVE PACKAGE 5 Sheets Sheet 3 INVENTORS.

Filed Nov.

ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,369,657 SURGICAL GLOVE PACKAGE Robert T. Quade, Bernardsville, and John Robson, Somerville, N.J., assignors to Ethicon, Inc., a corporation of New Jersey Filed Nov. 18, 1966, Ser. No. 595,536 7 Claims. (Cl. 20663.2)

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A folded primary package having a pair of surgical gloves which is adapted to be unfolded easily to expose only the inverted unsterile cuff portions of each of the gloves while continuing to cover the sterile finger portions thereof. Either one of the gloves may be removed from the unfolded package without disturbing the other glove or causing its sterile finger portions to become exposed.

The present invention relates to packages for surgical gloves, more particularly to such packages wherein the gloves are retained in an inner folded envelope which normally is intended to be hermetically sealed inside of an outer container which maintains the envelope and contents sterile prior to use.

Various types of envelopes and folders have been proposed for retaining the gloves in position in the package and presenting them for use when the package is opened. Typical of these is United States Letters Patent No. 3,181,695 which discloses a folder having triangular flaps which may be stamped or cut from a single piece of cardboard or like material. This folder is designed to be completely unfolded to expose the gloves in their entirety by pulling a pair of flaps provided for this purpose. When this is done, the finger portions of the gloves no longer are protected so that they may be contaminated if touched by the non-sterile fingers of the surgeon or his nurse. Furthermore, there is nothing to prevent the surgeon, in donning the first of these gloves, from accidentally displacing or dragging the other glove off of the sterile field provided by the opened folder onto the nonsterile supporting surface and thereby contaminating it.

According to the present invention, a surgical glove package is provided which comprises a protective envelope which may be opened easily in one motion, simply by pulling a single tab, to expose only the interior folded over cuff portions of the gloves without exposing the outwardly facing exterior portions of the gloves which must be maintained sterile. When the envelope is opened to-this extent, the first glove may be partially donned by the surgeon without danger of contaminating the finger portions thereof and without danger of displacing the other glove from the envelope, since it is retained therein by the structure of the envelope itself. Furthermore, the opened portions of the envelope provide a sterile field all around the gloves which minimizes the possibility of contaminating the gloves on removal from the envelope.

More specifically, the present invention contemplates a surgical glove package which comprises a protective envelope formed from a unified protective sheet of foldable material and a pair of surgical gloves normally retained within said envelope. The protective sheet preferably is formed from a flexible, or fiexibilized, single sheet having dead-fold characteristics. However, this may not be a necessary requirement and materials such as relatively light paper board also may be used if properly folded to assure the desired opening characteristics.

The protective envelope is folded longitudinally to form a pair of opposed compartments, and one of the gloves is 3,369,657 Patented Feb. 20, 1968 located in each of the compartments. The envelope comprises a top end flap, a central base portion and a bottom end flap common to both of the compartments, and each of the compartments comprises a top side flap and a bottom side flap. All of the flaps are folded down over the base portion of the envelope and over one another to form the two compartments for the gloves, and these compartments are only separated by the longitudinal fold line in the envelope. The cuff portions of each of the gloves are inverted and folded back over the gloves toward the fingers thereof. Thus, as positioned in the envelope, the gloves present outwardly facing exterior finger portions extending toward the top of the envelope and corresponding outwardly facing interior cuff portions extending toward the bottom end of the envelope. Preferably, the thumbs of the gloves face in opposite directions. Appropriate indicia are included on the outside of the envelope to indicate the direction of the thumbs.

The bottom end flap is folded into contact with the exposed interior cuff portions of the gloves and the bottom side flaps are folded down over the folded bottom end flap and into contact therewith. The bottom end flap is adapted to be grasped and pulled upwardly in such a way as to unfold all of the bottom flaps in one motion to expose only the outwardly facing interior cuff portions of the gloves lying in the surrounding sterile field provided by the inside surfaces of the unfolded bottom end and side flaps and the base portion of the envelope .on which the cuffs rest. Preferably, means such as a tab integral with the bottom end flap is provided for opening the bottom of the envelope for this purpose.

The top end and side flaps of the envelope of this in vention cooperate to form a pair of pockets completely covering the outwardly facing exterior finger portions of the gloves even after all of the bottom flaps have been unfolded to expose the cuff portions of the gloves,as described above. Since the position of the gloves, i.e., the direction of the thumbs, is indicated on the outside of the envelope, the surgeon then may begin to don the first glove by inserting his fingers into the cuff portion thereof before he begins to remove the glove from its pocket. Then, he can remove the glove from its pocket as he pulls it into position over his fingers. All this can be done without danger of touching the fingers of the glove which is being donned, or of displacing the other glove from its protected position within the other pocket of the envelope.

In a preferred form of this invention, the envelope comprises longitudinal barriers outwardly of the gloves for preventing their accidental displacement sideways from the envelope after the bottom flaps have been unfolded. Preferably, these barriers are presented by pleats joining the bottom side flaps to the base portion of the envelope and the plea-ts facilitate opening of the bottom flaps and minimize the tendency of these flaps to return to their folded positions. In other words, the pleats help the flaps lie flat after they have been unfolded.

It also is advantageous in the package of this invention that the bottom side flaps extend longitudinally beyond each of the ends of the outwardly facing interior cuff portions of the gloves after the bottom flaps have been unfolded at each side of the envelope. Preferably, the bottom side flaps overlap the pockets which cover the finger portions of the gloves for this purpose.

Other and further advantages of this invention will ap pear to one skilled in the art from the following description and claims taken together with the drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a view in perspective of a folded glove containing envelope in accordance with one embodiment of the package of this invention.

FIG. 2 is a similarly perspective view of the envelope 3 of FIG. 1 after its two compartments have been laid fiat by unfolding the envelope longitudinally.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the envelope of the preceding figures after the bottom flaps thereof have been unfolded in one motion to expose only the outwardly facing interior cuff portions of the gloves. This figure also shows the opposed pleats or barriers extending longitudinally of the package between the bottom side flaps and the base portion thereof.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged plan view of a portion of one of the pleats of the package of FIG. 3 with the two top folds of the pleat flattened out to show their relative locations.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged schematic view partly in section and partly in elevation taken along the line 5-5 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the envelope of the preceding figures completely unfolded and laid flat to illustrate the relative positions of the gloves and the various fold lines thereof.

FIG. 7 is a similar plan view of one side of an envelope according to a slightly different embodiment of the invention having longitudinal barriers from one end to the other.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view smilar to FIG. 3 of the embodiment of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a plan view similar to that of FIGS. 6 and 7 of one side of an envelope according to still a different embodiment of the invention wherein the bottom side flaps do not overlap the pockets retaining the finger portions of the gloves.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view similar to FIGS. 3 and 8 of the embodiment of FIG. 9.

FIG. 11 is a plan view similar to that of FIGS. 6, 7 and 9 showing one side of a package according to another embodiment of the invention which does not include longitudinally extending pleats 0r barriers.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view similar to FIGS. 3, 8 and 10 of the embodiment of FIG. 11.

Referring to FIGS. 1-6 of the drawings, there is shown a protective envelope 29 according to one embodiment of this invention. This envelope is folded longitudinally along the line A-A to form a pair of compartments 21 which are opposed to one another, as are the halves of a billfold. As best illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 6, the envelope is folded from a single, or unified, protective sheet of foldable material and encloses a pair of surgical gloves 22, one in each of the compartments 21. The gloves are positioned in, or lie on, a centrally disposed base portion 23 of the envelope which is common to both of the compartments 21, and the envelope also comprises a top end flap 24 and a bottom end flap 25 which are common to both of the compartments. Each of the compartments also comprises a top side flap 26 and a bottom side flap 27.

The cuff portions of each of the gloves 22 is inverted and folded up over the gloves toward the fingers thereof to provide outwardly facing interior cuff portions 28 of the gloves and outwardly facing exterior finger portions 29 of the gloves beyond the cuff portions 28. It is these outwardly facing exterior finger portions 29 which must be maintained sterile, whereas the adjacent outwardly facing interior cuff portions 28 are intended to come into contact with the surgeons hands as they are re-inverted when the surgeon dons the gloves.

The top end flap 24 and the top side flap 26 of the envelope are folded down over the gloves 22 and over one another to form a pair of pockets 30 completely covering the outwardly facing exterior finger portions 29 of the gloves, as best shown in FIG. 3. This also is illustrated in FIG. 6 by the line B-B which represents the position which will be occupied by the lower edge of the pockets 30 when the top flaps 24 and 26 are folded down into position over the gloves 22. It will be seen that the sterile exterior finger portions 29 of the gloves are well protected since they are enclosed well within the pockets.

correspondingly, the outwardly facing interior portions 28 of the gloves 22 which are exposed below the pockets 30 normally are covered by the folded down bottom end flap 25 and bottom side flaps 27 of the envelope. However when it is desired to open the envelope, all of the bottom flaps 25 and 27 may be unfolded in one motion simply by grasping a tab 31 integral with the bottom end flap 25 and pulling it to simultaneously unfold the flaps 25 and 27. When this is done, the sterile finger portions 29 of the gloves remain covered by the pockets 30 and only the outwardly facing interior cuff portions 28 thereof become exposed. Indicia 32 are included on the upper side of the top side flaps 26 to indicate the position of the thumb for each of the gloves 22 so that the surgeon may insert the fingers of one hand into one of the gloves while it remains in its pocket 30 and the glove may be partially positioned on his hand before he removes it from the pocket. This facilitates pulling the glove onto the hand without contacting the sterile finger portions 29 thereof. Furthermore, this may be done without in any way displacing the other glove from its pocket 30 or contacting any non-sterile surfaces with the glove which is being donned.

The exact way in which the envelope 20 of FIGS. 16 is folded can be illustrated best by referring to FIG. 6. The top end flap 24 may first be folded down over the gloves 22 along with the top corner portions 33 of the sheet from which the envelope 20 is folded. These corner portions 33 then form part of the top side flaps 26 which next are folded down over the top end flap 24 to form the pockets 30 referred to above. The folding of the bottom flaps 25 and 27 is complicated somewhat by the formation of longitudinal pleats 34 between the bottom side flaps and both the base portion and the bottom end fiap of the envelope. These pleats 34 are formed by first making a pair of transverse cuts 35 aligned with one another on opposite sides of the gloves, and then making the two folds 36 and 37 illustrated in FIGS. 3, 4 and 6 for forming the pleats. After the pleats 34 are formed, the bottom end flap 25 is folded down over the cuff portions 28 of the gloves 22 along with the bottom corner portions 38 of the sheet as was the case for the top end flap. Thus, the bottom corner portions 38 of the sheet become part of the bottom side flaps 27. Then, the bottom side flaps 27 are folded down over the folded bottom end fiap 25 to complete the formation of the two compartments 2 1 of the envelope, as shown in FIG. 2. In this position, the pull tab 31 on the bottom end flap 25 is clearly accesi-ble so that the bottom flaps 25 and 27 may be simultaneously opened simply by pulling the tab 31 to unfold them. The envelope 20 then is folded longitudinally to superimpose its two compartments 21 and the gloves 22 which they contain to form the completely folded protective envelope of FIG. 1. The envelope 20 in this form then may be inserted inside a conventional hermetically sealed outer envelope of the type illustrated in FIG. 1 of United States Letters Patent No. 3,181,695. The envelope 20 and gloves 22 may be sterilized before or after insertion in, or sealing of, this outer envelope or container, and means such as the pull tabs 4, described in the above referred to patent, may be utilized for opening the outer container to provide access to the folded inner envelope 20 of this invention.

As best shown in FIG. 2, the bottom side flaps 27 of the envelope 20 of this embodiment of the invention overlap the pockets 30 of the envelope when the side flaps 27 are folded down over the bottom end flap 25, thereby providing additional protection for the gloves 22 in the compartments. As a result, when the bottom end and side flaps 25 and 27 are unfolded, as shown in FIG. 3, they provide exposed sterile surfaces extending longitudinally beyond each of the ends of the outwardly facing interior cufif portions 28 of the gloves at each side of the envelope. As best shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, these exposed sterile surface are presented by overlapping portions 40 of the bottom side flaps 27 adjacent the top end of the envelope and the unfolded opposed bottom corner portions 38 of the sheet at the bottom end of the envelope. Thus, the exposed portions of the gloves are surrounded by sterile surfaces which provide a sterile field extending in all directions. This minimizes the possibility of contamination from adjacent portions of the surface supporting the envelope.

The longitudinal pleats 34 are positioned on each side of the gloves 22 and tend to stand upright to a certain extent above the base portion 23 and the unfolded bottom end flap 25 of the envelope so that they will prevent the gloves 22 from being dragged sideways onto a non-sterile surface at any time during utilization of the package of this invention. Furthermore, these pleats 34 facilitate quick opening of the bottom flaps 25 and 27 and then minimize the tendency of these flaps to return to their former folded positions. In other words, they help the flaps lie fiat once they are unfolded.

FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate a slightly different embodiment of the invention in the form of a modification to the embodiment of FIGS. 1-6, wherein the central fold lines 36 of the pleats 34 extend from one end of the envelope to the other. This allows the pleats 34 to stand more upright when the bottom flaps are unfolded, as shown in FIG. 8, and thereby provide more pronounced longitudinal barriers in the exposed sterile field provided by the unfolded bottom flaps.

FIGS. 9 and 10 illustrate a somewhat different embodiment of the invention identical with that of FIGS. 7 and 8, except for the fact that the bottom side flaps 27 do not overlap the pockets 30 of the envelope. This is accomplished merely by placing the transverse cuts 35 which separate the top side flaps 26 from the bottom side flaps 27 in line with the lower edge of the pockets formed by the top flaps. While this foreshortens the sterile field presented by the unfolded bottom side flaps 27, the possibility of contamination in withdrawing the gloves from the envelope still is minimized by the longitudinal barriers formed by the upright pleats 34 between the unfolded bottom side flaps and the base portion of the envelope.

FIGS. 11 and 12 illustrate another embodiment of the invention identical with that of FIGS. 1-6 except for the fact that the pleats 34 of the foregoing embodiments have been eliminated. In this form of the invention, reliance is placed upon the sterile field presented by the folded bottom flaps and 27, which surrounds and extends longitudinally beyond each of the ends of the outwardly facing interior cuff portions 28 of the gloves at each side of the envelope.

As indicated hereinbefore, the protective sheet forming the envelope of this invention preferably is flexible, or flexibilized, and possesses dead-fold characteristics. While this is preferable in all embodiments which have been described, it probably is more important in the embodiment of FIGS. 11 and 12 wherein the longitudinal pleats have been eliminated. Typical of the materials which have been found to be most suitable for this purpose are relatively heavy creped or compacted packaging papers weighing above about 30 lbs. per ream and having deadfold characteristics in that they are somewhat limp and tend to lie fiat when unfolded.

Having now described the invention in specific detail and exemplified the manner in which it may be carried into practice, it will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that innumerable variations, modifications, applications, and extensions of the basic principles involved may be made without departing from its spirit or scope.

What is claimed is:

1. A package for surgical gloves which comprises a protective envelope formed from a unified protective sheet of foldable material, said envelope being folded longitudinally to form a pair of opposed compartments, a pair of surgical gloves, one in each of said compartments, said envelope comprising a top end flap, a central base portion, and bottom end flap each common to said compartments and folded down over said gloves, and each of said compartments comprising a top side flap and a bottom side flap folded down over said gloves, the cuff portions of each of said gloves being inverted and folded over the gloves toward the fingers thereof, thereby providing outwardly facing exterior finger portions and outwardly facing interior cuff portions of said gloves, said bottom end flap and said bottom side flaps being adapted to be unfolded simultaneously in one motion while leaving said top end flap and said top side flaps folded down over said gloves after said compartments have been arranged alongside one another by opening the longitudinal fold of said envelope, thereby exposing the outwardly facing interior cuff portions of said gloves in the sterile field provided by said base portion and the unfolded inner surfaces of said bottom end flap and said bottom side flaps.

2. A package for surgical gloves according to claim 1, wherein said bottom end flap is folded down into contact with the outwardly facing interior cuff portions of said gloves and said bottom side flaps are folded over and down into contact with said bottom end flap.

3. A package for surgical gloves according to claim 2, wherein said bottom end flap presents a tab for unfolding the bottom end flap and bottom side flaps in one motion.

4. A package for surgical gloves according to claim 1, which further comprises longitudinal barriers outwardly of the gloves for preventing accidental displacement of the gloves sideways from the envelope after the said bottom flaps have ben unfolded.

5. A package for surgical gloves according to claim 4, wherein said barriers are presented by pleats joining said bottom side flap-s to said base portion and said pleats facilitate the opening of said bottom flaps and minimize the tendency of the bottom flaps to return to their folded positions.

6. A package for surgical gloves according to claim 1, wherein said top end flap and said top side flaps together form a pair of pockets completely covering the outward- -ly facing exterior finger portions of said gloves after said bottom end flap and bottom side flaps have been unfolded to expose the outwardly facing interior cuff portions of said gloves as aforesaid.

7. A package for surgical gloves according to claim 6, wherein the bottom side flaps overlap said pockets before said bottom flaps are unfolded and provide exposed sterile surfaces extending longitudinally beyond each of the ends of the outwardly facing interior cuff portions of said gloves at each side of the envelope after said bottom flaps have been unfolded.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 471,256 3/1892 Lorenz 229-56 1,983,685 12/1934 ToWnsley 229-56 2,908,308 10/1959 Dearholt 20663.2 2,936,881 5/1960 Fulton 20646 JOSEPH R. L-ECLAIR, Primary Examiner.

THERON E. CONDON, Examiner.

J. M. CASKIE, Assistant Examiner. 

